Course Setup and Structure
Welcome!
This document will outline what is expected of you each week, and hear some tips from me about how to succeed.
Required Video: Class Structure
What your typical week will look like
Coursework
Each week, you will be expected to work through a sequence of readings, videos, and check-ins. (Much like this one!) These are meant to replace the in-class lecture experience; thus, you should plan to devote about 1-3 hours a week to this Coursework.
Practice Activities
Suggested Due Date: Thursdays at midnight
As part of your “in-class” style work, you will also have short practice tasks to complete, to tie together the material. You should plan for these to take you 1-3 hours per week.
These are meant to replace the in-class group work experience; as such, you are strongly encouraged to work on these in groups.
Lab Assignments
Suggested Due Date: Sundays at midnight
Lab work is individual. Although you may discuss ideas with your classmates and seek help from the usual sources, all code and text should be your own.
Full Course subscribers may have their labs graded, if they wish, as long as the submission is on-time.
Challenge
Each week, your Lab Assignment will have an optional challenge, which will require you to learn and use skills beyond what is covered in the assignment.
Give these a try, if you want to push your R skills to the next level!
Tips for succeeding in this class:
Take the Coursework pages as seriously as you would take in-person lecture.
With this class being online and unofficial, there will likely be a temptation to skip things, multitask, and cut corners.
I want to encourage you to commit to giving the Coursework segments the same level of attention that you would ordinarily give to in-class lecture.
Put the same effort into the Check-In Activities that you would if you were sitting in a classroom.
In return for your efforts, I promise to design the coursework carefully, so that I do not waste your time.
Google is your friend.
The R community has an enormous aresenal of online learning resources.
Learn to Google for tutorials and examples; to use Stack Overflow; to ask questions on Twitter; and to otherwise make good use of the vast and welcoming R network on the internet.
Find ways to work together.
While much of this course is identical to the in-person version, it is impossible to fully replicate the experience of working together on a coding task in person.
We encourage you to establish Study Buddies and/or Study Groups early in the quarter, even if you don’t know anyone yet.
The class Discord server is a great way to get started, if you are a Patreon subscriber. I also hope you will be proactive about setting up your own video chat sessions, phone calls, Google Docs, group chats, etc. (How many different platforms can you talk about R on? Facebook? Snapchat? Instagram? TikTok? Bumble???)
I hope that we will all be purposeful and creative about finding ways to work as a team.
